Platoon

BARNES: I SHIT on all o' you.

CHRIS: KILL YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!!

BARNES: Elias is dead. Join up with the platoon. Move it.

CHRIS: He's dead! Where?... You saw him?

BARNES: Yeah. Back about 100 metres. He's dead, now get going, the gooks are all over the fuckin' place.

CHRIS: ...but 'Lias is still out there.

BARNES: I'll get him. You get the man in, Taylor NOW. Or I'll Article 15 both your asses. Move!

BARNES: Bunker...

CHRIS: Where?

ELIAS: ...You keep pouring out that suppressing fire, Barnes. I don't wanna be caught out there with my ass hanging out you hear me?

BARNES: Don't tell me how to fight this fucking war, 'Lias, you go crying to fucking brigade on your time. Out here you belong to me. Now move.

BARNES: Where the fuck is red platoon! Tell 'em to get their asses up here! What the fuck you doin' back here Elias? Round up your assholes and move 'em up front, we're getting chopped to shit.

ELIAS: Barnes, listen to me... there's 5-6 spiderholes back there next to the church. Third Platoon's coming up the stream to reinforce us. Flank's wide open, dinks get 3-4 snipers in these holes, when Third Platoon comes up, they'll get us in a crossfire with 'em. We'll shoot each other to shit, then they'll hit us with everything they got. It'll be a massacre!

BARNES: You're dead, you're fucking dead Elias!

ELIAS: YOU - you're going to fuckin' jail, buddy, you ain't getting away with this one!!!!!

ELIAS: WHAT THE FUCK YOU DOING!

BARNES: Stay out of this Elias. This ain't your show.

ELIAS: YOU AIN'T A FIRING SQUAD, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!

ELIAS: Blood trail just keeps going and going but no body.

BARNES: How the hell did he get away?

ELIAS: Fuckers returned fire soon as we lit 'em up. Hard core fuckin' NVA. They got their shit together.

BARNES: Elias - you take your squad and I'll take Tex and Francis from your squad. We move out in two-zero mikes.

ELIAS: I thought it was O'Neill's turn tonight.

O'NEILL: Uh... Bob. Like to speak to you. Take a minute.

BARNES: Yeah, what is it?

O'NEILL: Bob, I got Elias' R&R... It's coming up in 3 days. Going to Hawaii. See Patsy. I never asked you for a break, I was hoping you... you'd send me in on the chopper with King... what do you say Chief?

BARNES: I can't do that for you, Red... We need every swinging dick in the field. Sorry bout that...

O'NEILL: Hey Bob, come on! Talk to me hunh, it's your friend Red, I'm only asking you for three days chief...

BARNES: I'm talking to you Red and I'm telling you no. Get back to your position.

O'NEILL: Bob, I gotta bad feeling about this, I... I'm telling you I got a bad feeling, man, I don't think I'm gonna make it... y'know what I mean?

BARNES: ...everybody gotta die sometime Red... Get back to your foxhole.

O'NEILL: Sarge?

BARNES: Yeah that long hairy orange and black bastard I found in the ammo crate. I'm gonna put it in this asshole's crotch, see if he can walk.

BARNES: So what's the problem?

O'NEILL: Says he can't walk.

BARNES: Shit. Get your boots on Martin, next time I catch you putting mosquito repellent on your fuckin' feet I'm gonna courtmartial your nigger ass.

BARNES: We got boo-coo movement. 3rd Battalion just got hit 15 kliks north of here.

O'NEILL: Yeah, they had claymores strung up in the trees, blew a whole fucking platoon to pieces. BAAD SHIT.

JUNIOR: Don babytalk him man. Cocksucker fell asleep. They walked right up on us, he don do shit.

BIG HAROLD: Shaddup bitch.

JUNIOR: Hey Taylor, you don't know it but I saved your ass today. I killed a shit-eating dog.

BIG HAROLD: That reminds me, I gotta take a shit.

JUNIOR: You gonna wipe your ass dis time?

BIG HAROLD: Yeah if you let me have your shirt.

JUNIOR: Youse a pig man. I hope Manny get dat laundry gig for' you do.

BIG HAROLD: De fool think he's gonna get it but he ain't known for his thinking.

JUNIOR: He's a fool alright but you a bigger fool. Hey, whiteboy, watcha waiting for - dat hole ain't gonna dig itself...

JUNIOR: Hey Big Harold, gimme your peaches for the fruitcake man.

BIG HAROLD: Fuck you bitch.

JUNIOR: C'mon man, didn't I do you right that time I give you the turkey loaf for the ham and lima beans shit.

BIG HAROLD: Tricky bitch, reason you gimme dat turkey loaf is nobody else can eat that shit 'cept me so don't start your game playing with me Junior.

BUNNY: Come on you can do better than that!

JUNIOR: Fuck this shit! I ain't dyin' in no white man's war! Ise didi-ing this motherfuckah!

BUNNY: Listen to that shit, that's good shit!

JUNIOR: Fuck that redneck noise, dude. All dem chicks be rappin' how dey losin' der' ho's and how dey ain't got no bread for beer. Fuck dat honky shit. Got to get me some motown jams, dig it?

BUNNY: Whaddaya talking shit for man. Hey Junior! Y'ever smoke any shit?

JUNIOR: Das right dude. You be tryin' to string de black man out on dat shit and keep him DOWN. Time's be coming, my man, when de black man's gonna throw off that yoke.

BUNNY: Say I can dig it. Smoke that shit everything kinda gets weird y'know? Y'hear that story the gooks is putting chemicals in the grass so's we become 'pacifists' so's we don fight Where the hell's everybody, they'se gettin high that's what - bunch of hopheads, they think they special...

JUNIOR: Don you worry Bunny, youse a killer anyway.

BUNNY: Yeah but I still like a piece of pussy once in a while - ain't nothing like a piece of pussy cept maybe the Indie 500.

JUNIOR: Youse so fucked up man.

BUNNY: Y'ever look at yoself in the mirror Junior, youse uglier than a dick on a dog man.

JUNIOR: Yeah, you had a piece of pussy on a plate in front of you, you'd probably kill it.

BUNNY: Shit, I bet I been laid more'n you have.

JUNIOR: Sure, you probably stick it in tween her knees and think youse there.

BUNNY: Yeah?

JUNIOR: Only way you'd get some pussy is your bitch dies and wills it to you - and then maybe.

CHRIS: Rhah! What's going on. Rodriguez's hole just got...

RHAH: Okay, here it is - one, we got gooks in the fuckin' perimeter.

RHAH: Taylor! Francis!

CHRIS: Over here!

CHRIS: I was wrong.

RHAH: Wrong? You ain't EVER been right - 'bout nothing. And dig this you assholes and dig it good! Barnes been shot 7 times and he ain't dead, that tell you something? Barnes ain't meant to die. Only thing can get Barnes... is Barnes!

CHRIS: Fuck this shit!

RHAH: You guys trying to cure the headache by cutting off the head. 'Lias didn't ask you to fight his battles and if there's a Heaven - and god, I hope so - I know he's sitting up there drunk as a fuckin' monkey and smokin' shit cause HIS PAINS HE DONE LEFT DOWN HERE. Baaaaaaaaa!

CHRIS: You're wrong man! Any way you cut it Rhah, Barnes is a murderer.

RHAH: Shit boy you been out in the sun too long. You try that, he'll stick it right back up your ass with a candle on it.

CHRIS: Then what do you suggest big shot?

RHAH: I suggest you watch your own asses cause Barnes gonna be down on ALL OF 'EM.

CHRIS: Yeah! I got two of them fuckers...

RHAH: I got one...

CHRIS: ...See them go down? Like fuckin' target practice man, fuck you Charlie!! Ho Chi Minh sucks dead dick!... Crawford!

RHAH: Taylor - get your ass over here. Move!

CHRIS: Hang tough, Gator. Hang in there, man, you're gonna be OK... just hang on.

RHAH: Baaa, got no time to go to the movies. Love and Hate too busy fighting for possession of my soul.

CHRIS: Where's Elias come from?

RHAH: 'Lias come naturally.

CHRIS: Does he have a metal plate in his head?

RHAH: You mean he's crazy? No more crazy'n the rest of us been out in the bush too long.

CHRIS: Where's he from?

RHAH: Barnes comes from Hell.

RHAH: You lame Taylor?

CHRIS: What?

RHAH: You lame or something?

FRANCIS: Hey Taylor, you okay man?

CHRIS: Yeah. How 'bout you?

FRANCIS: Jes' fine man, jes fine! Ain't never felt better! Both of us two timers man, we're out. See you at the hospital man, we gonna get high-high yessir...

FRANCIS: Come on man!

CHRIS: No!

CHRIS: Where's Lerner?

FRANCIS: Out there man - behind the log.

CHRIS: La Dai! La Dai! GET THE FUCK OUTTA THERE!

FRANCIS: Hey take it easy man. They're scared.

CHRIS: They're scared? What about me! I'm sick of this shit man, I'm sick of this shit! They don't want us here! Who do you think they're fighting for! GET OUTTA THERE!

CHRIS: I'll go with you.

ELIAS: No... I move faster alone.

ELIAS: Oh shit! Sometimes there's things in my head... man. Grass does that to me, fucks me all up like a crazy Indian...

CHRIS: Do you believe that stuff about... knowing you're gonna die?

ELIAS: Yeah, those are the guys that live. I really don't think Death gives a shit, it's like a giant garbage can, I think it takes whatever it can get... you never know where it's gonna come from anyway... so why spin your wheels?

CHRIS: Barnes got it in for you, don't he?

ELIAS: Barnes believes in what he's doing.

CHRIS: And you, do you believe?

ELIAS: In '65 - yeah. Now... No. What happened today's just the beginning. We're gonna lose this war...

CHRIS: You really think so... us?

CHRIS: ...I can't sleep, why don't you get some sack time.

ELIAS: ...don't feel like it either.

CHRIS: ...beautiful night.

ELIAS: Yeah. I love this place at night. The stars... there's no right or wrong in them, they're just there.

CHRIS: That's a nice way of putting it.

ELIAS: Dawn! That was it!

CHRIS: Dawn...

CHRIS: But what'd she actually do?

ELIAS: She was a crossbreed, Chinese and Polish.

CHRIS: ...But what'd she do?

ELIAS: What didn't she do. She fucked the living shit outta me, that's what she did!

ELIAS: Feel good?

CHRIS: Yeah. No pain in my neck now. Feels good.

ELIAS: Feelin' good's good enough.

ELIAS: First time?

CHRIS: Yeah.

ELIAS: Then the worm has definately turned for you man.

CHRIS: Hey that's great King, that's great... you take it on home for me, you tell 'em King... got your address right? You know where you can reach men, man. Anytime!

KING: I gotta didi man. Don't wanna miss that chopper. I'll send you a postcard. After I get me some. I'll send you some tapes too man. This new guy Jimi Hendrix man, whew... you okay Taylor? Just 'member take it easy now, don't think too much, don't be a fool, no such thing as a coward cause it don't mean nuthin. Jes keep on keepin' on. Okay my man...

KING: 'People say I'm the life of the party cause I tell a joke or two although I may be laughing loud and hardy deep inside I'm blue...'

CHRIS: Y'ever get caught in a mistake King and you just can't get out of it?

KING: Way out of anything, man. Just keep your pecker up, your powder dry, the worm WILL turn. How many days you short?

CHRIS: Not just me... it's the way the whole thing works. People like Elias get wasted and people like Barnes just go on making up rules any way they want and what do we do, we just sit around in the middle and suck on it! We just don't add up to dry shit.

KING: Does a chicken have lips? Whoever said we did, babe. Make it outta here, it's all gravy, every day of the rest of your life man - gravy. Oh shit, superlifer!

KING: Must be somebody?

CHRIS: ...there's nobody.

KING: You been smoking too much shit babe. Gotta control that. Takes a man down... I remember when you first come out to the bush, you was straight as a...

CHRIS: Who gives a shit!

CHRIS: Three years, Jesus, he's crazy as Barnes...

KING: Well sometimes a man jes don' wanna go back. How you gonna talk to civilians man? People back in the world just don't give a shit, y'know what I mean, to them you're a fuckin' animal is all -

KING: Yo getting there Taylor. You be cool now and I'll introduce you 'round to some of the 'heads'.

CHRIS: What are the heads?

KING: Later...

CHRIS: ...you know that night we got hit... I...

KING: Fuck it, don't mean nothing, no such thing here as a coward, done your best man, next time y'do better.

CHRIS: No, thanks...

KING: Go on, whatcha gotta lose, yo' here now...

KING: You okay man? Neck botherin' you?

CHRIS: Nah...

KING: Here have some of this. Won't feel a thing.

KING: How the fuck you get over here man, you look like you educated...

CHRIS: I volunteered.

KING: You WHAT? Say 'gain.

CHRIS: Yeah, I dropped out of college and told 'em I wanted infantry, combat, and Nam...

CHRIS: Okay - got light duty, three days.

KING: Shit, too bad we in base camp anyway.

CHRIS: What you got there - beers?

KING: Yeah, just stole me some from the Top's supply but he's stealing it from us anyway. Chucks are coming. You better 'didi' man.

KING: What we got here a crusader?

CRAWFORD: Sounds like it.

CRAWFORD: You volunteered for this shit man?

KING: You a crazy fucker, givin' up college man.

KING: ...Motherfuckah, motherfuckah, I'm too short to be dealing with this shit! They keep fucking with us man, no letup...

CRAWFORD: Politics man, fuckin' politics. That O'Neill man got his nose so far up Top's ass he gotta be Pinocchio...

KING: Forty-two days man and a wakeup and I'm a gone motherfucker. Back to de WORLD.

CRAWFORD: Broke a 100. Got 92 to go. April 17. DEROS man. California this summer. Waves are good they tell me, surfin's gonna be good...

KING: March man in Tennessee, sniff the pines... sniff that crossmounted pussy walkin' down by the river. What you got Taylor? Let's see three hundred and WHAT?

O'NEILL: Excuses are like assholes, Taylor - everybody got one.

ELIAS: Knock it off! We got two men need attention here. Police up your extra ammo and frags, don't leave nothing for the dinks. Hoyt, Junior, carry Gardner.

O'NEILL: Shit! Morehouse and Sal are short. Fu Sheng's going on R&R, you don't want to send their asses out on an ambush. You got the fresh meat Elias.

ELIAS: They don't know shit Barnes, and chances are we gonna run into something.

O'NEILL: So what am I going to do! Get one of my guys zapped so some fuckface fresh from the World can get his beauty fucking sleep!

ELIAS: Hey O'Neill why don't you cool it, you don't have to be a prick everyday of your life, you know.

O'NEILL: Fuck you Elias.

WOLFE: Sounds pretty far out to me 'Lias.

ELIAS: Maybe but I seen it happen at Ia Drang in '66, First Cavalry and they cut us to fuckin' pieces! Give me three men, if I'm wrong, I can still roll up that flank.

WOLFE: Alright, Six says torch this place! Blow the weapons in place. Round up all suspected Vee Cees and shake it up! We ain't got much light left.

ELIAS: Why the fuck didn't you do something Lieutenant!

WOLFE: What are you talking about!

ELIAS: You know what I'm talking about!

WOLFE: No I don't. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, Elias!

ELIAS: Tell Six we need engineers here, this pos. is crawling with traps.

WOLFE: They're on their way... There's a gook village half a klik downriver, Battalion wants us to move in and search it ASAP, something's going on... where's Barnes?

KING: Right on.

RHAH: I remember first time you came in here Taylor you telling me how much you admired that bastard.

KING: Then you jes gonna forget 'bout Elias and all the good times we done had? Right in here.

RHAH: He dugged his own grave.

RHAH: Not the only man to meet his Jezebel either.

KING: So he got a reduced and come over here. Nam's his freedom man, Nam's his pussy. Three years he been here.

RHAH: The Good Lord works his revenge in strange ways.

KING: Yeah, you done said it. Revenge on US.

KING: He done a year in Japan in the hospital, then when he gets out, the first thing he done is re-up. Four years he been in the field...

RHAH: ...and you know how many times he done been shot? Seven times! Seven.

RHAH: I know Barnes six months and I'll tell ya something - that man is MEAN, red in his soul like a dick on a dog.

KING: Barnes gets killed, his jaws'd go on clacking...

KING: Whew! - where that come from?

RHAH: Found it. Growing in a garden.

KING: Sheeit, beats burning hutches anyway...

KING: Merle?

RHAH: Merle? Jesus!... Patty?

RHAH: Whatcha doing in the underworld Taylor?

KING: This ain't Taylor. Taylor been shot. This man Chris been resurrected...

LERNER: I was home on leave y'know and everybody's just worried 'bout making money, everybody's out for themselves, they don't even want to talk about it man, it's like the fucking Twilight Zone back there - you wouldn't even KNOW there's a war on here. My sister says to me why you have to go there like I started this...

RHAH: Baaaa! Fuck it, they sold us out - so what! What'd you'all expect? Civilian life is phoney BULLSHIT man. They're ROBOTS man - watchin' dopey television and drivin' dopey cars, and they fuck up, nobody dies. That's all right, you keep fuckin' up, politicians keep lyin'. Cause it don't really matter. Don't mean shit. So what! Whatcha want - a parade! Fuck that too! No war time no grunt never got no respect. Till he was dead - and even THEN! You're fighting for YOURSELF man! You're fighting for your SOUL, dat's all. Remember dat. And it's some goddamn battle too - if you'se a man, wrestle with that angel... ...Love and Hate - the whole shitbang show, that's the story then and now and it ain't hardly gonna change...

LERNER: Well he ain't normal that's fo sure.

RHAH: That's what he is... Baaaa!

LERNER: Tennessee someplace. Hill country.

RHAH: Barnes took a bullet right there. At Ia Drang Valley... And the cocksucker SURVIVED - that's BAAAD man. That's his high, baby. High on WAR!

LERNER: I didn't like it.

RHAH: Bah, you're a child, Lerner. Rhah don't waste time on you.

LERNER: And Baaaaaaa! back on you.

RHAH: If you're gonna do it man, 'least do it right.

RHAH: You wanted to see me sir?

WOLFE: Jackson, looks like you got Elias' squad now.

RHAH: Squad? I didn't know we was still referring to this platoon in terms of squads sir.

WOLFE: These two holes are yours...

RHAH: Begging your pardon Lieutenant but my holes are far enuff apart you could run a regiment through there and nobody'd see them - I got five live bodies left...

WOLFE: I don't want to hear your problems, Jackson. You'll get new men any day. Time being you make do like everybody else.

RHAH: Hey Lieutenant I didn't ask for this job, I...

WOLFE: I don't want to hear about it Jackson.

RHAH: You don't want to hear about it?

WOLFE: That's right. I don't want to hear about it 'cause to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit okay... I just don't give a shit anymore.

RHAH: Right...

WOLFE: This is one time we could sure use Elias.